
R3 
Mo- 2,0 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




013 982 892 6 



HoIIinger 

pH8.5 

Mill Run F3.1955 



E 783 
.R3 

no. 20 
Copy 1 



Wilson's Fatal Policy 
in Mexico 



Murder, Ruin, Robbery and Desolation Left 
in the Wake of His Deadly Delusions 



AMERICANS SCORNED AND FLOUTED 



Abandoned by Their Own Government, 

Their Property Seized, Their Women 

Abused and Their Appeals for 

Help Answered Only With 

Derision 



SPEAKER'S SERIES NO. 20 
Published by the Republican National Committee 

Washington, D. C, 1920 






Mr. Wilson came into the Presidency after a military coup in 
Mexico — not uncommon in Latin American republics — had over- 
thrown the government. President Taft left the Democratic ad- 
ministration a free hand to follow its own course. With what 
result? By incompetence and inefficiency, intemperance and intol- 
erance, interference and neglect, the Wilson administration de- 
stroyed the one chance Mexico had to restore a stable government ; 
it overthrew governments in embryo ; it sent envoys to rebels in 
arms against a friendly government; it brought on anarchy; it 
caused the murder of hundreds of Americans, the loss of hundreds 
of homes of Americans ; the violent death of tens of thousands of 
Mexicans, and the destruction of hundreds of millions of property 
belonging to Americans and Mexicans. 

The Democratic record in Mexico is a record of shame that the 
United States will find it difficult to live down — a record that will 
cost many years of dutiful effort to regain friendship and restore 
prosperity. It is one of the few black spots on the pages of 
American history. 



WILSON'S FATAL POLICY IN MEXICO 

From the dawn of civilization to the advent of Woodrow Wil- 
son as President of the United States, every nation worthv of 
the name has sought to protect its citizens and their interests 
wherever it had the power to do so. To Woodrow Wilson and 
the Democratic administration under him it fell to abandon this 
universal policy and proclaim to American pioneers in interna- 
tional commerce and industry that the United States would not 
give them the protection that was theirs by every right. 

Americans in Mexico, braving the dangers of jungles and tropi- 
cal climate in order to procure raw materials for American trade 
and industry, promoting trade with the United States, advance 
agents of prosperity both in Mexico and to their own country, 
were warned early in the Wilson regime that the\- would have 
to look out for themselves or get out. They were ^advised later 
to get out of the country and to abandon the homes and proper- 
ties which in many instances represented the savings of a lifetime. 
They were warned definitel}- that the United States would not 
try to protect them. 

NO PROTECTION FOR AMERICANS 

The duty of a country to protect its citizens and their interests 
abroad has been recognized by American statesmen since the birth 
of this country. It has received the endorsement in words by all 
parties in all times and in deeds by all parties at all times until 
the era of the Democratic administration of Woodrow Wilson. 
Even in the platforms on which he was elected "The sacred rights 
of American citizenship at home and abroad'' were declared and 
reaffirmed. Champ Clark, in 1919, declared that "No nation will 
long endure, or deserves to endure, that fails to protect all its 
citizens wherever they may be, on land or sea.'' 

That the United States has and long has had a duty toward 
Mexico has been generally appreciated, and the nature of it has 
been plain to everyone except Mr. Wilson and his Democratic 
administration. The duty was well summed up by Theodore 
Roosevelt in his last message to the American people, printed after 
his death, as follows : 

W^e have enough to do that is our business. Mexico 
is our Balkan Peninsula, and during the last five years, 
thanks largely to Mr. Wilson's able assistance, it has been 
reduced to a condition as hideous as that of the Balkan 



Peninsula under Turkish rule. AVe are in honor bound to 
remedy this wrong- and to keep ourselves so prepared that 
the Monroe doctrine, especially as regards the lands in 
any way controlling the approach to the Panama Canal, 
shall be accepted as immutable international law. 

Let us see what 'Mr. '\\'ilson's repudiation of one of the first 
duties of a nation meant for Americans and for Mexicans. It 
brought contempt upon the United vStates. shame to all our citi- 
zens abroad, and di-i'e calamity to Americans and their interests in 
Mexico. It led directly to the expulsio.n of 55,000 Americans from 
that country, to the murder of more than 500 of them, to the loss 
by confiscation or destruction of $1,000,000,000 worth of Ameri- 
can property, to the death in battle of 300,000 Mexicans and to 
the death by starvaticn and disease of 100,000 more, and to the 
expenditure by this Government of more than $500,000,000 in ex- 
ploiting the personal views of Woodrow Wilson. 

For the past eight years Mexico has l)cen going from bad to 
worse, physically, governmentally, economically and morally, until 
she has reached a state of almost complete chaos. Civil war and 
bolshevism, internal evils and external sophistries have kept her in 
a turmoil until the Mexican people are discouraged, impoverished, 
hopeless. The frank neglect by Mexico of her international obliga- 
tions has made of her a pariah among the nations of the world. 
At the First International Conference at The Hague she was the 
only Latin-American nation chosen to participate; today she is ex- 
cluded even from the League of Nations. 

THE EVIL DONE TO MEXICO 

A stand by the L^nited States, at the beginning of Woodrow 
Wilson's Administration, for the protection of Americans and their 
interests in Mexico would have prevented this chaotic disintegra- 
tion of a great nation. But now, misled by selfish chieftains, bled 
to her last peso by those who have ruled her by force. Mexico has 
lost her former standing in the society of civilized peoples and 
neither her word nor her bond is accepted by any nation. The 
Mexican Government is not today recognized by any world power 

Picture Mexico today. Economically she is in a woeful plight. 
Her public bonded debt is more than $250,000,000 gold, and, with 
the burden of the public utilities she seized and operated, her debt 
will run well over ■$.-)00. 000, 000. She has defaulted on her bonds 
since 1913, she has seized all the foreign owned railways and, 
excepting the Mexican Railway which was recently returned tc 
its owners, is still operating them, the express companies and 
other public iitilities. All these she has operated for her own 
exclusive benefit without any accovmting to the foreign bond- 
holders. Yet she has nothing to show for it, despite the greater 



taxation and other extortionate exactions which made her income 
under Carranza greater than ever before in her history. Banks 
have been looted by the government, good money has been re- 
placed with worthless script. All seizable assets have been dissi- 
pated by the high officials in maintaining the army. 

This is not an outsider's view of Mexico. The ^lexicans them- 
selves admit the woeful condition of their country. In August 
of last year Salvador Alvarado, one of the present IMinisters of 
State and a power in the new regime, addressed an open letter to 
\"enustiano Carranza and Generals Pablo Gonzalez and Alvaro 
Obregon. The letter was entitled "The Balance Sheet of the 
Revolution." It was a pathetic appeal to save the countrv. 

BALANCE SHEET OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Here are a few paragraphs from this "Balance Sheet," as pub- 
lished by that staunch supporter of the Wilson foreign policies. 
The New York Times : 

The great social movement which the revolution was 
supposed to inaugurate has degenerated into the satisfying 
of the lowest passions of men of the most cjuestionable 
character, crooks who. instead of being made Governors 
of States and put at the head of military operations, should 
be behind the bars of prisons. 

In spite of the establishment of constitutional govern- 
ment the weeding-out process of the worst elements of the 
revolution has not been carried out. The dregs of so- 
ciety, released from jails by the revolutionists, have been 
permitted to remain in the Government and the army, and 
some of them are wearing the insignia of Generals of Di- 
vision. 

The administration of justice has never had a good 
name in Mexico, but it can not be more prostituted than it 
is at the present time. A wave of immorality, open and 
cynical, involves every act of the court. 

The most alarming symptom is that public opinion no 
longer reacts when it hears of cases of bribery, graft, cor- . 
ruption and thefts of all kinds. It seems as if a wave of 
immorality has taken possession of everybody and every- 
thing in Mexico. This state of affairs has been caused by 
the fact that the dregs of society are now at large and 
holding high places in the councils of the nation. 

-The army and its leaders who terrorized Mexico during the 
last eight years were referred to by the Spanish author, Blasco 
Ibanez, as "the crowd of gunmen which is exploiting and dishon- 
oring the poor people of Mexico." He declared that he was actu- 



ated by an honest desire to contribute all he could "toward the 
destruction of that imperialism which is the principal cause of 
the backwardness and the anarchical state of affairs in which 
Mexico is living:.'' And he added: 

So long as that country does not suppress its generals, 
who are everlastingly bent on tyrannizing over it, so long- 
as it is not ruled by pacific citizens able to think in modern 
terms, Mexico will remain a sad exception, an object of 
loathing and disgust among all civilized peoples. The 
well-to-do classes of Mexico have fled the country and are 
wanderers on the face of the earth. The middle and pro- 
fessional classes have continued living at home, but under 
deplorable conditions, and either not daring to speak at 
all, or saying what they really think in as low a voice as 
possible. What else can they do with militarism in the 
saddle? A\'here can they find protection if the strongest 
portion of the j^eople, kept in ignorance, follow the mili- 
tary men blindly on receipt of a rifle and on a promise 
of two dollars a day and a free hand? 

MR. WILSON ON HIS OWN WORK 

Letters that he had received, wrote Blasco Ibanez, "read like 
the lamentations of slaves, denouncing the crimes of their oppres- 
sors and doubting whether there will ever be justice in that coun- 
try." 

Lest this picture of Mexico should seem partisan, let one read 
what A\'oodrow Wilson, Democratic President of the United 
States, said of that country barely five years ago, and bear in mind 
that conditions there have steadily grown worse since that time: 

Mexico is apparently no nearer a solution of her tragi- 
cal troubles than she was when the revolution was first 
kindled. And she has been swept by civil war as if by 
fire/ Her crops are destroyed, her fields lie unseeded, her 
work cattle are confiscated for the use of the armed fac- 
ticns, her people flee to escape being drawn into unavail- 
ing bloodshed, and no man seems to see or lead the way 
to peace and settled order. There is no proper protection 
either for her own citizens or for the citizens of other na- 
tions resident and at work within her territory. Mexico, 
is starving and without a government. 

Moreover, subsecjuently Robert I^ansing, Democratic Secretary 
of State, addressed the Minister of Foreign Relations of the Car- 
ranza Government which had been recognized by the United States 
in a note containing the following sentences: 



For three years the Mexican Republic has been torn 
with civil strife ; the lives of Americans and other aliens 
have been sacrificed; vast properties developed by Ameri- 
can capital and enterprise have been destroyed or ren- 
dered nonproductive ; bandits have been permitted to roam 
at will through the territory contiguous to the United 
States and to seize, without punishment or without effec- 
tive attempt at punishment, the property of Americans, 
while the lives of citizens of the United States who ven- 
tured to remain in Mexican territory or to return there 
to protect their interests have been taken, and in some 
cases barbarously taken, and the murderers have neither 
been apprehended nor brought to justice. It would be 
difficult to find in the annals of the history of Mexico con- 
ditions more deplorable than those which have existed 
there during these recent years of civil war. 

No plea of ignorance of conditions in Mexico can be accepted 
for Woodrow Wilson and his Democratic administration. The 
words of the President himself and of his Secretary of State show 
plainly that they have known the lives and properties of /\meri- 
can citizens in Mexico were being ruthlessly sacrificed, and thev 
did nothing but write notes admitting it— in the face of the Demo- 
cratic platforms pompously proclaiming the duty of the nation 
to protect "the sacred rights of American citizenship at home 
and abroad.'" This duty was ignored by Woodrow Wilson and his 
Democratic administration. 

WRECK, RUIN AND IGNORANCE. 

With this riot of lawlessness, anarchy and destruction to which 
President Wilson and Secretary Lansing bore witness, education 
in Mexico was allowed to be swept away so that tens of thou- 
sands of children have grown up during the past decade in igno- 
rance. Graft, intrigue, trickery and hatred of Americans have 
been the lessons learned by the arriving generation of Mexicans 
from their elders. Schools were abandoned, teachers were left 
unpaid until tliey were forced to seek other means of livelihood. 
The coterie of men in power, recognized by Mr. Wilson as the 
"government" of Mexico, deliberately sacrificed the teachers and 
the children. One estimate has it that in the Federal District 
alone 50.000 children of school age were deprived of education, 
and it is known that the number of schools in the Federal District 
dropped from more than three hundred to fewer than one hun- 
dred. 

The condition of the peon, the backbone of ]\Iexico character- 
ized by President Wilson as "the submerged eighty-five per cent," 
passed through every stage from indolent comfort to grinding 

7 



hardshi]) and c\-en enforced exile. Food becan>e scarce, work for 
wages was unknown except in the few spots where Americans 
braved assassination and confiscation to keep their investments 
whole, and millions of honest men. women and children faced 
starvatit)n. l{\en today thousands of Mexicans are fleeing- from 
their homes across the border into the United States that they 
may be allowed to earn money enough to keep themselves and 
their families from starvation. So serious has this exodus become 
that the present Mexican Government is endeavoring- to find some 
means to compel Mexican families — in several instances compos- 
ing- entire towns — from moving- to the United States. 

At whose door should the troubles of Mexico be laid? Pri- 
marilv at the door of W'oodrow Wilson, President of the United 
States, whose "watchful waiting" policy, at once his boast and 
the curse of Mexico, can onh- be interpreted as officious meddling 
in the internal affairs of a neighboring- nation and studied dis- 
regard of the duty of protection to American lives and proj-)erty. 
.\s Caspar Whitney so pertinently put it : 

"We failed to mind our OWN l)usiness ; 
"We failed to MIXD our own business.'' 

AMERICAN CITIZENS KILLED AND OUTRAGED. 

We failed to mind our own business by neglecting certain spe- 
cific duties of government. 

It was and is the duty of the United States to prctect 
the lives and properties of Americans, as it is the bounden 
duty of every nation to protect the lives and properties 
of its citizens wherever they may be. Yet hundreds of 
Americans were killed, hundreds of others were robbed 
and insulted, American women were ravished, property 
of American citizens valued at a billion dollars was de- 
stroyed or stolen, and American officials were kidnapped 
in the large cities of the country and forced to pay ransom 
to bandits — and the Wilson administration did nothing 
but send notes, some harsh but most of them mild and 
all after carefully notifying the Mexican authorities that 
we would not use force against them no matter how sav- 
agely they outraged us. 

This was in direct contrast to the pledges of the Democratic 
])latforms u])on which Woodrow Wilson was elected. Those 
pledges were flouted and rei)udiated by the President and the man 
he made Secretary of State, both of them ostensiblv chosen, one 
by the peo])le of the country and the other by the President him- 
self, to carr\- them out. The plan.k was sound enc^ugh. It asserted 
boldlv: 



The Constitutional rights of American citizens should 
protect them on our borders and go with them throughout 
the Avorld ; and every American residing or having prop- 
erty in any foreign country is entitled to and must be 
given the full protection of the American government both 
for himself and for his property. 

Had Mr. Wilson, his Secretary of State and the Democratic 
representatives in Congress used this declaration as something 
more than "molasses to catch flies," the newspapers of the coun- 
try would net now be carrying the information that the British 
are getting the best of Americans on oil for the future. Inci- 
dentally the hundreds of American citizens now dead in the moun- 
tains, jungles and cities of Mexico would be alive and still at the 
work of getting for the United States what the United States is 
entitled to in raw materials. And, also incidentally, the hundreds 
of thousands of Mexicans v/hc have died of the powder and shot, 
allowed to the Mexican evil-doers by him who twenty-four hours 
after he lifted the embargo on exporting arms and munitions to 
Mexico, set aside a Day of Prayer for the Peace of All the World — 
these dead innccents also would still be alive. 

The Democratic ]ilatform pledge was practical. The AVilson 
idealism that slew the innocents was and is nonsense — evil, deadlv 
nonsense. 

REPROACHES AND INSULTS FOR MEXICAN VICTIMS 

On one riccasion, when affairs in Mexico were more than usually 
serious the American colony in Mexico City, made up of sul)stan- 
tial business men who were vitallv interested in the welfare of 
Mexico, sent a committee to Washington to see the Democratic 
v^ecretarv of State, and C(Misult with him on the best things to 
do to meet the situation. They refused to advise meddling by 
this countrv with the internal aft'airs of Mexico, but armed with 
the Democratic ])latform went simply to read aloud the platform 
])ledge and to assure the Administration that that pledge spelled 
jieace in Mexico, good relations, respect and finally friendship. 

The Secretary gave the members of this committee just ten 
minutes, six of which he used in telling the committee how busy 
he was. He advised them to see the Democratic chairman of the 
Foreign Relations Committee, of the Senate. This they did. and 
to him thev read the Democratic ])latform pledge. The Demo- 
cratic Senator read it himself and then handed it back to the 
chairman of the committee with the ringing words: 

You people don't understand ! The minute you crossed 
that river (meaning the Rio Grande the name of which 
he had forgotten) the United States lost all interest in 
yo.u and all duty toward you. 



This un-American sentiment, uttered by Woodrow Wilson's 
spokesman in the Senate of the United States, crushed the com- 
mittee, but the members of it did not give up until they had seen 
the President himself. J\Ir. Wilson's chief interest was to find 
out what companies these men represented — not what they knew 
about Mexico and the Mexicans. His- duty was plain, and has 
remained plain during the seven and a half years he has been in 
office. As President of the United States it was his duty to 
protect Americans — instead of jireaching about his duty to all 
mankind. exce])t American mankind. 

WHAT ITALY DID AND AMERICA DIDN'T 

Let us see how such a policy has worked in another instance — 
even against the LTnited States. In 189'2 five Italian criminals, 
members of the Mafia, who murdered the chief of police of New 
Orleans, were lynched by an outraged mob. For this Italy with- 
drew her diplomatic representative from Washington. Negotia- 
tions were carried on by the French diplomists here, on behalf of 
Italy, with the result that the L'nited States from that time on 
complied with its international obligations toward Italian citizens. 
There was no war. It is not on record that any Italian publicist 
bespoke "patience, forbearance with a struggling young republic" 
or even reminded the world that the five men lynched were "ad- 
venturers." Italy simply minded her own business and obtained 
redress and protection for her subjects. 

Compare this with the Democratic policy under Mr. Wilson 
toward Mexico when hundreds of Americans — not criminals but 
citizens of the United States engaged in producing in Mexico raw 
materials necessary for our well-being in peace and war — had 
been murdered with impunity in Mexico, when posses of Car- 
ranza's army were raiding American ranches and murdering 
American citizens o.n American soil. Then Woodrow Wilsc»a 
SENT an Ambassador to Mexico! The deadly idealism that 
prompted this un-American capitulation is the cause of our troublef= 
with Mexico and of the disorders in that country. Depredations 
thrive on immunity. The Democratic administration favored the 
Mexican criminals not only with immunity but encouragement- 
through the writings of Woodrow Wilson and his propagandists. 
William Bayard Hale, Lincoln Steffens and John Reed. 

MR. WILSON'S QUEER REPRESENTATIVES 

The Democratic record in connection with Mexic(j is a record 
of refusal to listen to re])orts from American citizens and Ameri- 
can officials on the ground. It has been notorious, on the other 
hand, that President Wilson has taken his information on Mexico 
from William Bayard Hale, a German })ropagandist ; Lincoln Stef- 

10 



fens, friend and protector of Trotsky (and incidentally, this same 
anti-American Steffens, thrown out of an American pulpit for his 
utterances during the war, was retained l)y the Democrats to 
write an article on Mexico for the 1910 Democratic Text Book); 
John Reed, who was appointed Bolshevik consul at New York 
and then became a fugitive from justice : and from John Lind. who 
confessed under oath before the Senate Committee investigating 
Mexican affairs that he had received "expenses'' from the Car- 
ranza faction in Mexico. 

Even if the Democratic policy toward our menacing neighbor 
had been well intended, the fact that Woodrow Wilson deliberatelv 
gathered his information as a basis for that policy from enemies 
of American law and of American well-being must stand undis- 
puted. 

Since the accession of Woodrow Wilson to the Presidency Am- 
bassadors to Mexico Wilson and Fletcher have been forced to re- 
sign their high positions because of their conviction that the policy 
of the administration has been ruinous to Americans in Mexico. 
Consuls General Shanklin and Chamberlain have been forced to 
resign their posts for the same reason. These trained service men 
were willing and anxious to extend prt^tection to American citi- 
zens on their properties in Mexico. All four found that the policy 
of the Democratic administration encouraged confiscation, mur- 
der and rape of Americans in Mexico and incursions by lawless 
Mexican soldiery into American territory. As honorable American 
citizens working for American prestige and respect against the 
evil idealism of the Democratic Administration, only one course 
was open to them. They resigned. 

THE MEXICAN PROBLEM NO PROBLEM AT ALL 

\Voodrow \Vilson was elected President (if the United States of 
America — not the President of Mankind nor of Humanity. His 
duty in Mexico was clear and precise — to gain and keep respect 
for Americans on the border and in that country. It cannot be 
denied that that duty was the last consideration in the sliaping 
of Wilson's policy. To have fulfilled this duty would have averted 
the disaster of Mexico and would not have led to war any more 
than the similar attitude maintained l^v this Government from 
]8mS to 1910 had led to war. W'hen the United States assumed and 
held this position no threat or thought of war ever arose ; and the 
protection which, because of this attitude, the Mexican Govern- 
ment extended to foreigners also protected Mexicans ; ^Mexico was 
at peace. 

The Mexican Problem is not a problem at all. It has been sim- 
ply the reappearance of the elements of what was once a problem. 
That problem was solved by President Hayes and his successors. 

11 



The supposed problem of the last eight years was simple, but by 
Woodrow Wilson, with the assistance of American socialists and 
agitators, it was rendered complex because it was handled along the 
lines of a supposed idealism which, when analyzed, spells Bol- 
shevism in its baldest form. 

William I'^rank Buckley, an attorney who lived many years in 
]\Iexico. testified under oath that the Wilson administration insulted 
reputable Americans who were familiar with conditions in that 
country when they profifered their advice out of the fullness of their 
knowledge and from purely patriotic motives. President Wilson 
himself egotistically snubbed prominent Americans actuated only 
by love of their own country, a real interest in Mexico and a desire 
to see co-operation between the two nations. Scores of men testi- 
fied to the same attitude on the part of the President and his cabinet 
satellites. ^Ir. Buckley said: "The American Government (under 
A\'ilson) never consulted Americans in Mexico and has always re- 
garded them as unscrupulous adventurers.'' 

THE CROWNING DISGRACE AT TAMPICO 

The unprecedented action of the Wilson administration April 20, 
1914, still rankles in the heart of every patriotic American and 
especially in the heart of every loyal officer and sailor of the United 
States Navy. For it was on that date that Admiral Mayo was 
ordered to abandon hundreds of American men, women and chil- 
dren to the mercies of a mob of Mexicans in Tampico who were 
marching through the streets shouting "death to Americans," as- 
saulting them in their homes and in the business streets, and shoot- 
ing at the American flag. When Consul Miller learned that Secre- 
tary Josephus Daniels had ordered the withdrawal of the warships 
from Tampico he cabled three separate protests to the State De- 
partment setting forth the danger to Americans. Admiral Mayo 
himself could not believe the orders and cabled back to Washington 
to have them repeated. But they were confirmed — he was ordered 
to leave threatened Americans in a foreign country to the mercy 
of a hostile mob. They were finally rescued by German, British 
and Dutch ships. 

These American citizens, attending' to their own business, repu- 
table men and their families, were forced to accept the protection 
of foreign flags because the Democratic administration refused to 
give them the protection they had the right to expect and to which 
thev were entitled. They were taken to sea, transferred to the 
American Avarships that had been withdrawn on orders from A\ ash- 
ington, and then arbitrarily taken to Galveston. Their protests 
against being- taken from their homes and business, leaving both 
unprotected in a foreign land, went for naught. They were com- 
pelled to accept the charity of the people of Galveston for food and 

12 



clothing. A committee was sent to Washington to protest, but 
President Wilson refused to see it, and Secretary Daniels, when 
finally he condescended to receive them, called them "a lot of fili- 
busters, schemers and adventurers." 

This was the same attitude taken by My. Wilson's Secretary of 
State, Bryan, who, when Americans were murdered or kidnaped 
in ]\Iexico, shrugged his shoulders and said that they had no busi- 
ness there anyway. How vastly different from that thoroughly 
American Secretary of State, John Hay, who secured the instant 
release of an American citizen, kidnaped by a ■Morocco bandit, by 
cabling tersely to the Sultan of Alorocco, "'Perdicaris alive, or 
Raisuli dead !" 

AMERICAN PROPERTY UNDER CARRANZA 

During the entire eight years of Wilson's regime the American 
oil men have had a double battle to fight in order to secure the 
petroleum necessary for peace-time pursuits and later vitally neces- 
sary to the winning of the w^ar against the Central Powers of 
Europe. First they had to fight against the deadly pitfalls of the 
Mexican jungle and roving bands of bandits and rebels and even 
against the predatory organized forces of President Carranza ; then 
they had to fight against the indifference and even hostility of the 
Wilson administration, by which they were branded as adventurers, 
filibusters and trouble-makers even at the time they were desper- 
ately struggling to wrest from the Mexican soil the fuel to run the 
ships that were taking the American soldiers to Europe to defeat 
Germany. 

The American oil men have at no time sought more than the 
recognition of their legal rights. They bought the land in the 
Tampico district for the announced purpose of developing oil. They 
paid the price asked for the land and every step they took was in 
accord with the Mexican laws. As George Creel, the W'ilson press 
agent, has written : 

Xot a single American company or individual in Mexico 
holds any concession from the Government of Mexico, 
and not a single American company or individual in Mexico 
is developing oil or has devolped oil on any land but that 
acquired from private owners by straight-out purchase or 
fair lease. 

Yet confiscation of oil and other properties of Americans has 
been carried on under one guise or another, without interference 
by the Wilson administration during the entire eight years beyond 
the sending of occasional notes, frequently inept, which became 
such a joke in Mexico that the Mexican newspapers used them as 
subjects of humorous stories and cartoons. Small land-owners by 
the hundreds were driven from their homes and their properties 

13 



confiscated. Appeals to Washington were filed until the material 
evidence against Mexico clogged the archives of the State Depart- 
ment. And the Wilson administration continued artlessly doing 
nothing. 

ALWAYS OTHER PEOPLE'S BUSINESS 

But in failing- to mind our business in ^Mexico the Wilson admin- 
istration has been even more criminally remiss. It has been marked 
l)articularly with meddling in Mexico's internal affairs and usually 
with an ineptitude that could not have been greater had it been a 
studied effort. First on one side, then on another, Wilson inter- 
fered. He flirted first with one belligerent and then another, lifted 
the embargo on arms and lowered it time after time — and on each 
occasion admitted arms and munitions to be used in the min^der of 
more Americans. It was brought out in the Senate investigation 
that, with the exception of the Torreon massacre of 303 Chinese 
citizens, forty-six Americans were killed to one of all other foreign 
nationalities in Mexico. 

The interference of President ^^'ilson in affairs that were purely 
and exclusively Mexican has been preposterous and often unique 
in the history of civilized nations. No other nation in history ever 
presumed such intermeddling as, for example, the John Lind 
mission. This is perhaps the worst of many evil acts of inter- 
ference recorded even of the Wilson administration. Instead of 
conferring with Americans who had lived in Mexico and knew 
thoroughly the situation AVllson sent John Lind, w^ho knew no 
Spanish and nothing about Mexico, to dicker with Huerta, then 
acting President, and to investigate conditions. Lind had instruc- 
tions from Mr. Wilson to promise this and that on condition that 
Huerta be not a candidate for the Presidency of ^Mexico. If that 
was not attempting to dictate the internal affairs of a nation, 
what is? 

Then there was the seizure of Vera Cruz on the pretext of de- 
manding a salute to the American flag and the futile end of the 
expedition with no salute given. A score of Americans were killed 
in that ill-starred expedition. It has been truly said : 

DEATH AND FAILURE AS A POLICY 

"President Wilson did not occupy Vera Cruz to avenge the out- 
rage of the flag, as the Congress innocently believed, and as the 
majority of the American pyeople still believe. President Wilson 
occupied Vera Cruz, as he said metaphorically, 'to serve mankind,* 
or, as Secretary Lane says without metaphor, 'to show Mexico that 
we were in earnest in our demand that Huerta must go.' " 

•Again, the raid on Columbus, N. M., was due to the fact that 
Mr. \\'ilson took sides in the struggle between \'illa and Carranza 
and ])ermitted the shii)ment of soldiers and munitions across Amer- 

14 



lean territory to aid Carranza in attacking Villa. This was followed 
by the abortive Pershing- expedition with the killing of more than a 
score of x\merican soldiers ; and we failed to catch the perpetrators 
of the hideous crime of Columbus because of the hamstringing of 
the expedition by the Democratic officials in Washington, the fail- 
ure of the Democratic administration to be prepared for trouble, 
and hampering orders to Pershing by the pacifist Secretary of War. 

More recently, only last year, we sided against \'illa when he 
attacked Juarez and by armed intervention repulsed the Villistas 
as they were on the point of victory, thereby changing the whole 
course of Mexican history. The true American must hang his head 
in shame at this interference because of one direct result — the 
lynching by the Mexican military authorities, with Carranza's ex- 
pressed approval, of Gen. Felipe Angeles, one of the few real friends 
of the United States among tht big men below the border. 

The Government of Carranza in Mexico literally owed its exist- 
ence and its maintenance to W oodrow Wilson and his administra- 
tion. Wilson recognized the military dictatorship of Carranza as 
a de facto government before it even approximated such a state : he 
furnished Carranza with arms and munitions when Carranza was 
nothing more than a bandit on a par with Villa at his worst. It 
would naturally be supposed, under these circumstances, that the 
Carranza Government would have been our firm ally during the 
European War. But the contrary was the case. 

GERMANY HONORED AND AMERICA HISSED 

Our Ambassador was hissed in the Mexican Congress while a 
demonstration of friendship was given the German Minister. 
Mexico became the center of German intrigue against the United 
States. Most of the German plots, the conspiracies, the dynamite 
explosions, strikes, spy systems, submarine attacks aimed at the 
United States originated in Mexico. Wireless reports of condi- 
tions and events here were transmitted daily from Mexico City to 
Germany. Large numbers of German officers were assigned to 
positions in the Mexican army. 

The German Minister in Mexico became the real director of 
foreign affairs and Japan was invited to join with Mexico in an 
invasion of American soil. The Monroe Doctrine was flouted, and 
the American people and the President of the United States were 
derided and vilified publicly. American citizens and consular rep- 
resentatives were arrested and thrown in jail. The oil wells, which 
supplied the necessary fuel for the American and British fleets and 
for the tanks and other motorized equipment at the very battle 
fronts, were threatened with seizure at the behest of the Germans 
who, unable to get the oil supply for themselves, were desperately 
trying through their friend, Carranza, to prevent their enemies from 

15 



\ \ 



getting it. The enemy in Mexico was as violent in his hatred as 
the foe across the sea. 

Meanwhile contempt and ig-nominious dismissal met any at- 
tempts at protection of American citizens and their interests and 
for rej^aration for injuries inflicted upon them. It is a singular 
thing — in all the history of the intrusion of President Wilson in 
Alexico, there is not a single act calculated to protect Americans in 
that country. A prominent Mexican, a statesman of parts who 
understands and appreciates the United States and is friendly 
toward us, writing in September. lOlG, emphasized "the absurdity 
of the position taken by the President of the United States who, 
instead of looking after the welfare of his countrymen, has con- 
cerned himself with promoting the welfare of Mexicans, with re- 
sults so completely negative that never has Mexico been poorer, 
hungrier and more oppressed by an anarchical and criminal faction 
than at this very day; the present Mexican Government — if it is to 
be called such — a creature of President Wilson, has been declared 
by Secretary Lansing 'not worthy of the name,' since it has proved 
its 'neglect' and its 'failure' to fulfill 'the paramount obligation for 
which governments are instituted,' to wit, 'the protection of life 
and property.' " 

THE BLACK SPOT OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 

^Iv. Wilson came into the Presidency after a military coup in 
?^Iexico — not uncommon in Latin American republics — had over- 
thrown the government. President Taft left the Democratic ad- 
ministration a free hand to follow its "own course. A\ ith wdiat 
result? By incompetence and inefficiency, intemperance and intol- 
erance, interference and neglect, the Wilson administration de- 
stroyed the one chance Mexico had to restore a stable government; 
it overthrew governments in embryo ; it sent envoys to rebels in 
arms against a friendly government ; it brought on anarchy ; it 
caused the murder of hundreds of Americans, the loss of hundreds 
of homes of Americans; the violent death of tens of thousands of 
Mexicans, and the destruction of hundreds of millions of property 
belonging to Americans and Mexicans. 

The Democratic record in Mexico is a record of shame that the 
United States will find it difficult to live down — a record that w-ill 
cost many years of dutiful effort to regain friendship and restore 
prosperity. It is one of the few black spots on the pages of 
American history. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



16 




013 982 892 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 982 892 6 



HoUinger 

pH8.5 

Mill Run F3-1955 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 982 892 6 



Hollinger 

pH8.5 

Mill Run F3.1955 



